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When stylish outfits aren’t conventionally flattering, but still attractive and fun, they are often what I call just flattering enough. The wearer usually achieves these proportions by creating sufficient structure, which usually means hinting at a waistline. Or the wearer has skillfully elongated the outfit, by increasing the vertical integrity of the outfit or lengthening the leg line.

Here are ten ways to elongate an outfit. They might come in handy when you’re experimenting with conventionally unflattering proportions. Sometimes it will take only one of these troubleshooting tips to make the outfit look just flattering enough. And sometimes you’ll need to incorporate a few of them to get the outfit to work.

Wear heels: This is the most obvious strategy because heels make your legs look longer. Even low heels of one and a half or two inches count as heels.

Create a low contrast with your footwear: Keep the contrast between the colour of the shoe and your skin tone low. Or create a low contrast between the colour of the pants and the shoes.

Wear pointy toe footwear: Pointy toe shoes are the most elongating, but almond toes also count. If you don’t like to wear heels, choose pointy toe flats.

Tuck or partially tuck the top: Tucking a top, or partially tucking a top in front, visually shortens the torso and lengthens the legs. This is particularly effective when wearing flats. Tucking also adds structure by adding waist definition.

Create a column of colour: I have covered this strategy in great detail. It elongates and slims the body by emphasizing the vertical and eliminating horizontal lines across the middle of the body. This is one way for petites to look visually taller.

Taper the hems of cropped pants: Making sure that the hems of cropped pants and boyfriend jeans fit closely to the calf will help to elongate the leg line.

Wear V-necks if you’re short waisted and short in the neck: The shape of the V visually lengthens the neck which further accentuates your long lean line.

Raise the hemlines on skirts and dresses when wearing flats: The shorter hemline, which needn’t be shorter than just above the knee, elongates the lower leg which increases the length of the entire leg line.

Leave a jacket or coat unbuttoned: The vertical line that is created down the centre front of the body by leaving a coat or jacket unfastened draws the eye up and down thereby increasing the vertical integrity of the outfit. It’s a magically slimming strategy.

I also think that tucking away the bows of laces on boots, oxfords and sneakers helps elongate an outfit by making the eye flow up and down instead of to the side. It’s a very subtle strategy but one that can make a difference when laces are particularly long and bulky.

I’m not saying that every outfit has to be about waist definition and elongation. Not at all. Fashion and style has moved on from that philosophy, which is empowering and liberating. You have to find your figure flattering sweet spots and incorporate them into outfits. These elongating strategies might help you wear an item or look that you thought wasn’t flattering, when all that was required was a little tweak, like partially tucking the front of the top, wearing low-contrast footwear, adding heels or unfastening the jacket.

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Great tips, Angie. I use or will try many of them. I would add that if I am tryng wider legged pants or flares, choosing ones that are more fitted through the hips and thighs seems to be elongating. Not sure if this is specific to my somewhat leggy body type. This is a different tip than how to put less conventionally flattering pieces together, more about how to optimize length within potentially challenging styles.

wonderful tips Angie. I think I am giving up heels this year but a pointy flat might work very well for a dressier capsule. I am also taking the vneck to heart and trying to stick with that guiding principle.

Raising the hemline was the first of these tweaks that I successfully put into practice after joining YLF, followed by floor sweeper pant length and, most recently, tapered cropped pants. I have a relatively long torso so my tweaks tend to focus on the ankle and foot.

Reading these tips makes me realize how much I have learned here Angie. Not that I would have been able to list them so helpfully, but I think I use most of these tips now in a way that would have ever occurred to me before YLF.

These are fantastic tips!! I am only impressed that I actually do each and everything on this list!! The only one I have always had difficulty with is v-necks. Most are too low – I have a small bust and relatively bony chest. I either prefer high v’s or very low v’s with a higher coordinating cami underneath. I also really like long, low, slim v neck cardigans underneath a long jackets with a cami. The buttons on the cardigan really elongate the line and draw the eye vertically in my mind and I find these cardis very flattering as tunic dresses with leggings and booties. I’ve always wondered if other people wear their long cardis that way(I like mine with a low hip belt). PS I am wearing this right now.

Wonderful tips! Now that we may be heading into oxford season (she said crossing her fingers and looking skyward) I plan to use this little gem of advice:
I also think that tucking away the bows of laces on boots, oxfords and sneakers helps elongate an outfit by making the eye flow up and down instead of to the side.
Thank you Angie

Thanks for this wonderful round up of tips. Finding ways to employ your styling tips to move from not quite flattering to just flattering enough is perfect for my current dressing experiments. Thanks again

Thank you for these tips, Angie. Like Shevia, I was nodding along, realizing how much I’ve already learned here!

I have another one for the small busted and long necked — one that you model brilliantly all the time, Angie. V necks tend not to flatter those of us who are a bit bony in the chest. But a turtleneck and/ or a popped collar flatters — and I feel it visually elongates also. Of course it tends to elongate the torso vs. the leg line (which can be a good or a bad thing, depending on your personal proportions and your aesthetic preferences) BUT if you combine this strategy with “column of colour” you also have a leg lengthening effect. I feel my tallest in column of colour outfits with turtlenecks worn with a small heel.

What a wonderful set of tips Angie! I also already use quite a few of them, as I have short legs and try to elongate their line. Interestingly, I have long neck and small-ish bust but think V-necks look fine on me, though I could be mistaken.

Great tips! Good to know that as a petite person, I’m already doing most of these. The only one I have trouble with is the tucking option. Tucking of any type just doesn’t work on my body. I’ll have to compensate by being more diligent about following the other tips. Thanks!

This is a list that I will print out to refer to often. Recently when I tried an old pair of wide legged pants that never seemed quite right but I kept for their great quality and fit, I used a pointy toe bootie that even has a bit of a heel. The booties felt like magic for what they did for the outfit.
I will have to think about raising the hems of dresses with flats.

This is a great list. Some times I’ll put on an outfit and without realizing it (definitely since joining YLF) I’ll notice something is off — I’ll say to myself it’s almost there … then I’ll change the shoes, the hosiery, adjust the sleeves. I now know the time I spend with these adjustments aren’t in vain. Sometimes I’d get there sometimes I wouldn’t. I now have hope. There is a way to make it work (here’s the list — thank you Angie!)

In general I still try to go for traditional flattery, and these tips are great for achieving that.
The one that I am especially trying to experiment more with is tucking and partially tucking tops. I’ve always been too concerned with not emphasizing my short and undefined waist, but I had never thought about it that it can visually lengthen the legs.
Food for thought!

I mentally checked an outfit I’m planning to wear soon and saw that it went against most of the tips. My little self is amused by that, since I am not what anyone would call elongated! OK, it includes #1 and mayybe #7; #10 too but that one is slightly confounded by the center lines not being vertical but zigzag. I am often very OK with outfits that are just flattering enough.

I already use most of the tips here. However, I used to feel like I *had* to follow all these tips all the time and my wardrobe was focused on the most conventionally flattering items. Flattering but a little repetitive and boring. It is so liberating to have more room to experiment with new silhouettes.

Thanks for putting all of these tips in one handy place. The column of color is my favorite tip for now. I’m looking to add pointy toe footwear. I also realized that my new Coldwater Creek skirt, which shrunk a bit in the wash, actually looks better on me now, as the hem is higher and close to my knee so it lengthens the lower leg.

A good article Angie and judging by the responses, many find your suggestions worthy. Since I’m petite, I read and learned these strategies long before and I consider these principles when I dress each day in one way or another. They really do make a difference and help one look just that bit more stylish.

Angie, your list illuminates the reasons that these strategies work. It’s so helpful to understand why some little changes make such a difference. Pre-YLF, I always wore my cardigans partially buttoned. I felt uncomfortable with the fronts flapping, and especially with round-necked cardigans, I felt buttoning the middle couple of buttons created a waist. Now I find myself wearing them open more often. When I try buttoning them, I often don’t like the look as well. This post helps me understand why that might be the case for some outfits!

What a great list! I will use this often, it’s great to see it all together in one place.

One more from the peanut gallery: Add a little height with your hair. Either pile it on top of your head in a bun or puff it up a bit. This always makes me feel taller, and in an updo it seems to lengthen the neck and draw the eye upward.

Thanks for these tips, Angie. I often do low contrast footwear. I’m on a hunt for comfortable, flattering nude-for-me shoes for spring/summer. Being on Team Well-Endowed, I have trouble with tucking; I’m not sure that typically does me any favors. There are other tips here, though, that I will be sure to try.

this is a terriifc list and after checking todays outfit I realized I had used tips #2,3,4,6,8,&10!!! – Didn’t read the list until I was home from work from the day!! – I must be learning!! I feel like I just passed a pop quiz!!! woot!!

These figure flattery posts are so helpful, Angie! Since joining YLF, I’ve learned to implement many of these successfully. However, I still have the hardest time with tucking and partially tucking. Because I’m short-waisted, any kind of tucking seems to just throw off my proportions even more.

As usual brilliant tips, Angie! Proportions and balnce are very important to me and usually when I don’t feel fab in the outfit it means the proportions are wrong. Partial tuck was my “aha” moment when I realized how much more flattering it is on me than the full tuck – because of my bottom curves I think. V line it creates on the full bottom is as flattering as v-neck is to a full bust!
Another my struggle was midi skirts with flats: as soon as the skirt is at or below the knee I feel frumpy unless I wear at least a small heel. I saw pictures of midis with flats which looked good (including yours) but never liked them on myself.
It is an interesting thought that V necks may work on me better than on you or Suz because my shoulders are broad but I still do not like myself much in them unless V neck is not wide and not deep.

I am bookmarking this post. I was just reviewing my outfit pics today and realized how much more flattering the look is when the outfit drew your eye vertically rather than horizontally. I will be putting these tips into action this week!

Angie I love these tips and follow many of them already. What I struggle with is tucking in or partially tucking in a top. I just can’t seem to do it with out it thickening my middle or highlighting my (not so baby any more) are there tricks I am missing? Also my new shopping goal will be to find some flattering flats.

This is a wonderful post, so handy to have all these tips in one place and perfectly articulated! I use these on a daily basis, usually several at once. Some I arrived at through trial and error, and some I learned through YLF. I find these methods of lengthening especially useful when I’m playing around with proportions (which is most days), and because of how well these work I’ve been happily sporting the “just flattering enough” thing for a long time now.